Brandon Goodwin

Professor Christensen
Edu 202
12/1/21

Assignment 1 (Observations)
1: My first impression of the classroom environment is a very casual place; the students talk
among themselves until Mr. Domingo would get their attention to get to work, the classroom
itself is 10 groups of 4 tables allowing for student-to-student social interaction and there are
plenty of posters relating to Mr. Domingo's subject of choice and a few for his sports team.
2: The classes that I observed seem to be predominantly white but with a handful of ethnicities at
about a 1 to 4 or a 1 to 3 ratio of ethnic to white. Male to female is a good 50/50 ratio give or
take a few.
3: There does not seem to be any posted class rules. When asked about it, Mr. Domingo says that
he has all his rules posted on canvas in expectations. He did point out a poster of “10 things that
require no talent” which he expects students to come to class with, which include being on time,
work ethic, effort, body language, energy, attitude, passion, being coachable, doing extra, and
being prepared.
4: Mr. Domingo expects the kids to follow the school rules and will enforce those, usually with a
couple warnings before any consequences, for example “Take those EarPods out” or “Return to
your seat please” however I was not able to see any actual consequences being given.

Assignment 2 (Classroom Layout)

The classroom is a bit crowded due to the number of desks in the classroom, however the
workflow of the room seems effective, it has enough room for him to wander around the class to
overlook students, while also being able to hold as many students as he has in groups of 4,
groups are largely self-contained.
It does not seem to be able to be improved, Mr. Domingo has limited space with a lot of students
and expresses the desire to have his small groups for peer-to-peer interaction. However, he has a
bit of room in the back left corner of his class to work with that could give a little bit more space
between desks, if he got rid of the spare large desk that’s used for storage or as a visitor seat.
Assignment 3 (Instruction)
1: Mr. Domingo’s classes all get 4 things on the board to let them know what they are going to
do that day, they get an objective, activity, homework and CCSS, the specific work they get
depends on if they are in his normal, honors or advanced class.
2: Instruction seems to be dependent on what the assignment is, however, there does seem to be
classmate discussion no matter if the instruction is individual or grouped, so in a sense it is
always group lessons or the entire class. However, there are times where he requires no talking to
tablemates like during tests.
3: Mr. Domingo will instruct them as a whole group giving examples from a prior student's
project using examples of what was good and what they missed and then have them split up into
their table groups to work on their assignment, he will then walk around the class and aid, when
need be, overhearing conversations. Any assignments (Big projects, solo assignments) are
explained to the students back-to-back before sending them off to work on the assignment that’s
due first.
4: Mr. Domingo has very limited learning styles implemented as he is an English teacher, but he
does have a physical activity for his English classes where they will run up to the board and
correct some grammar. (MUG shot Monday is the name of the run-up activity)
5: Students did seem to be engaged with the run-up activity as well as the assignment given.
They were talking about the assignment and asking clarification questions.
6: The only isolated students seem to be the ones whose tablemates were all absent on that day.
7: Instructional time does seem to be managed efficiently, Mr. Domingo got through all
instruction and the kids had plenty of time to do the assignment in class.
8: Mr. Domingo handles transitions of periods just as good as any other high school teacher, the
bell rings, he dismisses class, his class fills up with his next period, bell rings again and then
class begins, he does give a warning of when class is about to leave by vocalizing “Alright pack
it up!”
9: Mr. Domingos attention getting commands seem to be vocalizing passive aggressive
comments reminding them to get back on task, or the classic “Listen up!” or the classic “Alright
let's begin!”
10: Mr. Domingo has a few seat hoppers where he reminds them to return to their assigned seats
any disruptive students are reminded to settle down and get on track.
11: School announcements take up instructional time for his 3rd period class, but that seems to be
a school wide 3rd period interference. And a bell indicating 1st lunch ended and a different set of
5th period classes began interrupted his 5th period class.
Assignment 4(Culture)
Physical Characteristics-
1: The school itself is 4 separate buildings all built by brick with a big open quad in the middle of
the 4. Two of the buildings could be considered one as there is a large metal roof connecting the
two but under that roof still feels “outside”, there are 2 gates that lead to the outside world that
define where students are allowed to be while school is active. Inside the buildings the hallways
are red brick with blue carpet, blue carpet seems to run through the entire “inside”, there are
occasional handmade posters of the mascot the falcon with a corresponding teachers name, as
they are right outside the door, as well as upcoming events or even motivational.
2: Inside the classrooms the brick turns white and is decorated with whatever the teacher deems
appropriate. All this together can make the students feel confined and retrained, to others it could
feel like a safe haven away from their home life, it all comes down to the individual student.
Culture of the School
1: The mission statement is “Graduation for All”, The Motto seems to be Fly High Falcons based
on the murals on the walls, with the Mascot being The Falcon.
2: The Staff and visitor interaction in the main office seems to be professional when the visitor
needs the information with a touch of casual if the person at the front desk can connect with them
in any means. Throughout the school the students tend to circumvent the staff, unless either the
teacher has a reason to talk to a student homework, coaching, asking about the performance of
the game they played in, but in any other case there is hardly any interaction outside of the class.
3: The formal practices of Foothill High School seem to be fairly standard. The school bell
schedule is cut up into hour blocks with 2 separate lunch periods around 5th period either student
would have 5th period then lunch or lunch than 5th period and then all students would synch up at
6th. so not all students are in the quad at once. I haven't seen any pull-out programs; however, I
was observing mainly Honors and Advanced English classes. While walking down the hall I did
notice hints of a pull-out program with a staff member guiding a handicapped student down the
halls.
4: Students will meet up with their friends in the hallways in the passing of each class, while at
lunch they will either sit at tables, flowerbeds or just on the ground next to the walls. The
flowerbed barriers are a good bench size that they are not just sitting on dirt while sitting on the
flowerbed.
5: Foothill High School has a wide range of Sports with achievements and traditions behind it,
from casual rivalries between Green Valley or Palo Verde to large nationwide accomplishments
under their belts most notable being cheerleading winning multiple large-scale competitions
from 2016 to 2019, Science Bowl Plaques for 2019 and 2020, and Softball in 2015
The school also presents any trophy won in their rivalry competitions, being proud victors over
Green Valley for JV Volleyball at their 12th,17th,18th and 19th annual tournaments and a Thursday
nights Lights victory against Palo Verde.
They also seem to boast for any records broken by any individual person, however there is only
one record they are boasting about being the state record for most goals scored in one game by
single player in 2010 Christian Volesky.
They Seem to also take pride in their arts department showing rewards for the arts, notable
entries being 2020 spirit academic championships, 1st place Jazz intermediate 2011 and 1st place
novice 2017 Katella Jazz Festival, Legacy Show Choir 1st place 2013 and Chamber Gold in 1013
World Strides heritage performance.
They also marched in the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade in 2014.

Culture of the Classroom

1: Mr. Domingo's expectations for learning and success expects all of his students to succeed in
both class and field, in the brief interactions I saw outside of the class he is one of the teachers
who would call out a student and ask them about their performance and was encouraging about
them being able to do better.
2: Not every student participates in the entire class activities, however they do seem to
participate in their table group activities and conversation. The only time students really got to
participate is when they were presenting, or doing a run up to the board and correct the grammar
activity to which Mr. Domingo said to not be a hog and to share the corrections allowing more
students to participate than normal. There doesn’t seem to be any connection between which
student participated and which student didn’t.
3: When teaching Mr. Domingo has a powerful voice so that everyone can hear and know to pay
attention, it's not aggressive it's just loud. While the students are in a more independent work
time Mr. Domingo wanders around the class trying to help in any way he can, his tone is a lot
more casual and helpful while still being informative.
Assignment 5(Interview)
1: Mr. Domingo has a lot of family influence to push him into teaching, a lot of teachers/school
staff in his family, he personally wanted to go into law, he says his family set realistic
expectations of classroom and it was mainly extended family to set those standards.
2: Mr. Domingos main challenges are juggling professional and personal responsibilities, even
professional and professional responsibilities. He is a football coach and teacher so there is a lot
to juggle.
3: Mr. Domingo claims the best part is seeing students reach a potential. The first time a student
comes to him saying “I'm the first one to go to college” or “I know the answer!” doesn’t matter
the scope of the success, it is seeing it that really is the best part.
4: Mr. Domingo says the 1st and 2nd quarter Students sit where students want to sit and that it
usually shoots the students in the foot by sitting by their friends being distracted and all. In the
3rd and 4th quarter he sits them by skill level, strengths, and tries to make symbiotic relationships,
if one student is good at writing he tries to pair with the kid with good ideas.
5: Mr. Domingo tries to take notice of any outstanding qualities and tries to pair students with
complementary students.
6: Some assessments that Mr. Domingo uses is Informative, discussion points what they know,
themes of the world around them with the book, and what they learned prior years, depending on
what students know the teacher can gage what they can do.
7: Mr. Domingo says his grades go in campus once a quarter, he even says student interactions
are logged, parent interactions are logged, and that teachers are evaluated by the interactions.
8: He sees parents every day, either ones of kids he coaches or teaches, just out and about in
daily life, discussions at school include 40% academic discussion 60% overall wellbeing, they
say and do on the daily, only time that academics is discussed is when the student is struggling or
if parents asked. Hardly any questions due to the ease of Canvas.
9: Mr. Domingo spends 18-22 hours a week of grading, about 3 hours a day.
10: Mr. Domingo says it takes him a weekend to prepare for the week anywhere 6-8 hours, when
first started teaching it would take him much longer, and it varies between subjects. Always
modifying how he does it. He warns not to teach the same book every year, you may save time
but you’re harming your students by doing it. Summers are used for planning or coaching.
11: He loves having students talk to maximize instructional time, that way he gets good feedback
and discussion causes more learning to happen by agreeing and disagreeing, he don’t give out
work for work's sake.
12: He says his positive reinforcement by showing exemplary work from students within the
same class, so some students feed off of it and it breeds competition. His most effective
consequences are addressing serious issues 1 on 1 because no one likes being called out and
arguing never works. By calling someone out it puts them in a corner, and they’ll fight back.
Teens will always get the last word and power struggles aren’t good, 1on1 does best. He advises
correcting in isolation.
13: He says writing labs help with individualized learning, even just breaking up the class during
tough times to help out each student individually, send half over there for the specialized teacher
to help teach, they even help break out into groups.
14: Mr. Domingo says that teachers are evaluated on the NPF, probation teachers get evaluated 9
times a year, he prefers to be observed 5-6 times a year, experienced teachers are observed 3
times a year. He suggests being observed at the beginning of a unit, middle of one, and end of
one just so they get the full scope.
15: Mr. Domingo says that consequences for an unfavorable evaluation include additional
training, more observations, they get extra help, not necessarily consequences just help and
additional coaching.
16: Mr. Domingo was shocked about how much you start to really care about school and
students on your off hours, he loses sleep over kids coming to him about their rough life at home,
he tries to leave stuff at work, but things will follow and its surprising. Once your invested and in
you in it. It’s the emotional baggage that surprised him.
Assignment 6 (observing a student)
The day I decided to do this part of the assignment was a student presentation day for
projects they had been working on. Mr. Domingo told me the presentations were all about a
specific part of the holocaust in his other classes but the 1920’s for the class I observed the
student in. For the project each student was told to pick a different thing to teach about, and Mr.
Domingo said that they would become the teachers about their specific part. The student started
class talking about their project with their partner, Mr. Domingo called out a bunch of names for
people scheduled to go that day and the student's partner got excited to be called later in the list
of names claiming they might not have to go that day. Then the room was dark for the projector
to be noticeable, and there was not a lot of time for other activities when the presentations began.
The student I was observing was mainly quiet and very attentive to whatever student was
presenting, diligently filling out the associated worksheets. Even during the downtime between
presentations, the observed student was patiently waiting for the handout as well for the
presentation to begin with a bit of side conversation to their tablemates about some notes they
missed. Occasionally, when asked by the presenter, the student I observed would pipe up
claiming they needed more time to fill out their handout. Some of the presentations included
Nightlife of the 1920s, the Assembly Line, the Harlem Renaissance, and Advancements in tech
during the 20s. Some of the things I uncovered by viewing by putting myself in the student's
shoes is that it is easier to get distracted during the slower presentations, but during the fast-
paced ones you need to get everything written before the next slide so there is no time for
slacking. At the end of the class, the student I observed packed up, remained in their seat but had
casual conversations with the other students in their proximity, the bell rang, Mr. Domingo said,
“See you later Falcons!” and then the student left.
Assignment 7 (Summary)
My 10-hour observation went a lot quicker than I expected, it was surprisingly a lot more fun
than I was expecting. I was observing a subject I would consider one of my worst subjects but
that did not detract from the experience. I was expecting Mr. Domingo to be a lot stricter with
me when going into it, I guess it's because I do not see myself as an equal but still a student so I
was worried I would somehow get in trouble; however, the first week came and went and he
greeted me and was eager to provide any information he could about teaching in general.
Answering the general school life questions was easy for me as I am a 2016 graduate from
Foothill and there was not a lot to change within the 5 years, that being said there were only 2
teachers still employed that would recognize me, neither of them being Mr. Domingo. The
hardest questions are the school achievements and the drawing a picture of the classroom, one
because of scale, and the other because I didn’t know how much information I needed to satisfy
the answer. I learned a lot and the observations put the lessons into perspective and made me
think about what strategies Mr. Domingo used to teach his students. The observations really did
help a lot in solidifying my career choice. Overall, all the ease I had with this assignment was
due to me getting through with it as early as possible and having a very cooperative teacher to
observe.